Author
Topic: Asterisk PBX (Read 3479 times)

I want to set up a PBX that would have 3 analog phones. Does anyone have any hardware suggestions for FXO or FXS cards that aren't expensive but are still decent. I have looked at Digium cards but was hoping for some alternatives. Has anyone set up a PBX with LinuxMCE?

PREFACE: I am still putting together all the pieces for my first stab at LinuxMCE.

I have read a lot about Asterisk over the last couple years.Digium makes good cards. The only problem is the good ones cost $200+. The wildcard/digium clones are only suitable for testing and are prone to echoes/bad sound quality.

I use a card from x100p.com (about $30 US) for a single incoming POTS line connecting to my internal voip network and it works great. Initially I got it to test a set up, but it seems to work fine for my needs.

But if you want connect more than one POTS line to asterisk, your best bet is to go with the digium cards.

Yeah that's what i was thinking of doing. I was hoping for something cheaper but the Digium cards will be what I go with. I am contemplating going with an 8 instead of 4 so i can use 1 FXO and 7 analog phones or maybe 2 FXOs and 6 phones. From what i can tell they make the best cards and the knock offs of it aren't quite the quality (most knock offs arent). So I will have to bite the bullet and stop being such a cheap bastard.

I use a card from x100p.com (about $30 US) for a single incoming POTS line connecting to my internal voip network and it works great. Initially I got it to test a set up, but it seems to work fine for my needs.

But if you want connect more than one POTS line to asterisk, your best bet is to go with the digium cards.

Yeah i noticed that last night when i was looking. That it only took quad cards i mean....I will probably stick with the 1FXO/3FXS for now and add more FXS or FXO later if i really need em. I dont imagine ill be needing any more FXO lines though....and 3 phones can be split off some if i decide i need another one somewhere else that bad. My house is small...1750 SF so more than 3 phones would really just be me being too friggin lazy to walk to a phone in another room. Thanks for the advice though....I am still thinking about VOIP but i still have a lot mre to look into it all.

I already have plenty of analog phones and didn't want to waste money buying new SIP phones....and the ones i see seem more expensive...am i wrong in that? i haven't looked at them very hard. I would consider it, i just sorta figured i'd stick with analog.

I'm using a relatively cheap Grandstream HandyTone 488 to connect internal analog lines to Asterisk. I have had few issues with it. The big trick is to connect its "wan" connection to the internal network. Then LMCE will recognize it as a Grandstream Budgtone phone and configure it automatically. if you want more advanced features like individual extensions the cards make more sense. I don't need that at home. In fact I use the cell phone almost exclusively. The upside is that I have integrated my cell phone (Nokia e70) with an internal SIP stack into the system as another extension. (Directions here: http://voxilla.com/voxilla-stories/voxilla-how-to-guides/using-the-nokia-e-series-phones-with-asterisk-865.html )